After four years of tests and screenings and near-death experiences, a Syrian family was approved to move to the United States. But they were stranded at the airport in January while a network of refugees in Charlotte anxiously awaited their arrival

This summer, children and adults will go into this region’s lakes and pools and never come out. If drowning is predictable, discriminate, and entirely preventable, why are so many people in Charlotte dying in the water?

On a clear night last October, she danced and sang as she walked home through the streets of the neighborhood she loved. What happened next devastated her family and friends, and left an entire community searching for answers

Going back to when the city passed liquor-by-the-drink in 1978, Charlotte has sped away from the communities that surround it. In 2016, though, the great urban-rural divide dominated the national conversation. Charlotte lost business, control of its destiny, and a sense of self, in part because of how quickly and thoroughly it had gone forward. Can—and should—it go back?

He was an honor student at West Charlotte, a football player, a shoe salesman, and a role model. In 2007, he was dancing at a birthday party when someone fired a deadly shot into the room. How does nobody know who did it?

Paul Booe was a beloved mixed martial arts trainer who taught hundreds of students how to fight their way out of difficult situations. But few people knew the battles being waged in his head, until one day, Mother’s Day 2015, he was gone

The weather turns colder, the games become more important, and the lessons hit home harder. The Myers Park football team, which is split nearly evenly along racial and socioeconomic lines, hits the heart of the 2015 season.

Thirty-five white players. Thirty-two black players. Some rich. Some poor. All Myers Park Mustangs. We spent the entire fall with them to see what happens when you put kids from different backgrounds together for a season. The result is this three-part story of hard lessons, lifetime friendships, stupid mistakes, and endless optimism about uncertain futures.

No matter how much Charlotte grows, no matter how much money pours into the city, no matter how many fancy restaurants we open or breweries we build, one disturbing statistic will define our future if we don’t fix it. Right now.

In an era when chefs become celebrities, and as Charlotte’s food scene gains more recognition, he and his team have turned the spot into one of the best restaurants in the city. But you’ll never hear him say that

How do you live with the loss of your son? Or daughter? Or the sudden loss of another loved one? One organization in Charlotte, KinderMourn, spends every day helping people move closer to finding an answer that may not exist